Leading versus simply obeying...

My friend Graham Power once shared a pearl of wisdom with me. He said that what gets to most leaders is not the busyness or the demands of the work that needs to be done, but the pressure of bearing the responsibility. He said "Just about any person can perform tasks, and do that pretty well. But not everyone can take responsibility for the choices that need to be made". I have found this to be so true.

Being a servant of Christ in ministry is often extremely challenging. I found the following quote quite inspiring as I read it this evening. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of the difference between leadership (what he calls 'commanding') and obedience in the following manner.

"Commanding is more difficult than obeying. And not only because the commander bears the burden of all who obey, and that this burden can easily crush him. But in all commanding there appeared to me an experiment and a risk; and the living creature always risks himself when he commands"

Taken from Zohar and Marshall's exceptional book 'Spiritual Capital', (London. Bloomsbury, 2004:142).